Apple's Tim Cook dismisses hybrid devices

Apple's Tim Cook has dismissed the idea of the firm developing a laptop-tablet hybrid device.

The tech giant's chief executive suggested that combining an iPad and MacBook Air would likely be counter-productive.

"Anything can be forced to converge," he said in a conference call transcribed over at Seeking Alpha. "But the problem is that products are about trade-offs, and you begin to make trade-offs to the point where what you have left at the end of the day doesn't please anyone.

"You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things are probably not going to be pleasing to the user. We're not going to that party... others might from a defensive point of view."

Rival firm Asus has found success with its Transformer series of hybrid devices, and chipmaker Intel is expected to enter the sector in the near future.

The Apple boss also hit out at the ongoing patent war in the technology industry, and vowed to seek an alternative solution to litigation, BBC News reports.

"I've always hated litigation, and I continue to hate it," he said.

"We just want people to invent their own stuff. If we could get into some kind of arrangement where we could be assured that's the case and a fair settlement of the stuff that's occurred, I would highly prefer to settle versus battle."